Gratitude: I Was So Close To Dying That Day

It’s Thanksgiving week. Right now, in this moment, I’m enjoying the calm before the storm. The fireplace is going, I have scented candles that smell like fall lit around the room, and I’m enjoying a cup of earl grey. All is well.

Over the next few days my Facebook feed will be full of #gratitude posts from friends and family. “Thankful for my kids.” “Thankful for our meal.” “Thankful for this country.” “Thankful for my parents.”

Gratitude and thanksgiving as I scroll through my feed.

It’s such a stark contrast to a normal social media day. The social media world where people unleash all of our frustrations, disappointments, and anger. It has become a place where name calling and bullying grow and fester. There are people we think we know well, until we see their dark side spill out in rage on social media.

So while I am grateful to have a day where all of that darkness take a back seat to love and gratitude, there is an underlying sadness that we only get ONE day.

On Friday social media will be filled with photos of people shopping at Black Friday. The news will show shoppers clawing and screaming at each other for the last TV at Wal-Mart and life will return back to it’s normal routine with gratefulness and thanksgiving taking a back seat to the problems of the world.

Thinking about this, I was reminded of Brian Doyle, who set out to extend the power of gratitude beyond one holiday in his unique social experiment: “365 Days of Thank You.”

He starts off by saying, “I was so close to dying that day.” Watch this quick video to learn how one incident changed Brian’s life.

In addition, I came across another short video that has gone viral. This is a 2 minute quick reminder on changing your perspective.

I am grateful to all of you for following me, for interacting with me, for reading my posts and watching my videos. Most of all I thank you for loving me, despite my faults, imperfections, and all of my mistakes.